Virtually every Republican political strategist agrees that the economy, and particularly the cost of living, will be the dominant issue in the 2026 midterms. Convincing swing voters that Donald Trump is decisively bringing back the best-ever economy and lowering the price of essential goods and services — which he promised to do a thousand times during his 2024 campaign — is the key to the Republican Party’s hopes of defying the odds and hanging on to control of Congress in November. It’s reinforced by many polls that show the economy is the No. 1 concern for voters, and that there’s a great deal of anxiety, some of it generated by the rise of AI and the immense power of billionaires on Wall Street and in Silicon Valley, that goes beyond prices at the gas pump and the grocery store.

But just as the midterm campaign season begins in earnest, Trump’s MAGA movement, and perhaps Trump himself, are showing signs that they really don’t want to dwell on the economy beyond braying that it’s better than ever, blaming Democrats for every problem, and implying that unhappy Americans are ingrates.

Immigration has always been the favorite issue of Trump’s base. What made Trump’s 2024 comeback magical to his most loyal supporters was that he finally stopped dillydallying around with border walls and travel bans and pledged to deport every single undocumented immigrant in the country, and maybe some documented immigrants as well, as part of an effort to purify a country cursed by diversity.

A year ago, the immigration issue was a net positive for Trump as border crossings plunged. But it soon became obvious that his mass-deportation program would go far beyond the “worst of the worst,” or the violent criminals Trump and J.D. Vance liked to talk about, to encompass millions of peaceful,........

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